The Greatest Journey

Miss Alice Stewart is a poor girl, recently fatherless with a mother and two younger siblings to take care when she finds a job in service as a maid with her aunt Mrs. Green. Soon the family she works for loses money and lets go of her, in need of w...

Chapter VIII

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"Daniel did you miss your big sister?" I smiled when Daniel opened the door dirty from his chimneys.

"Mother it's Alice!" He jumped out to hug me and then I wished to not have come say goodbye.

"Alice?" I heard mother's voice coming to the door. "You did not say you would come see us," my brother let go and she brought us in the house.

"Alish," Joan giggled her way to me and I brought her up in my arms.

"Look at you Joan so tiny with father's eyes," I tickled her.

"Is everything alright? Should you not be at the Howard household at this hour?" Mother asked me sitting down and I looked at Daniel who looked guilty of telling mother stories.

"Everything is fine, the pace is slow today."

"So your employer has not lived up to Mrs. Howlett's rumors?"

"He has not, you needn't worry mother."

"Is he very old? Or wounded from battle?" It was like mother and I were the same side of the same coin at times, we both made the same predictions.

"Not as far as I can tell, he is simply alone."

"That is quite odd, should you continue to work there?"

"All is fine mother, Mrs. Howlett's rumors have come to nothing."

"Good."

"Yes," I wished to dismiss any more conversation of his behavior or I'd have to divulge things mother would not like, "and I came here because I have some news."

"What sort of news?"

"My employer will be going to the country side tomorrow and I am leaving for an extended time to join the other servants there."

"I thought you would always be stationed in London," she said a little worried by the news.

"Do not leave us Alice," Daniel insisted hearing our conversation.

"Oh come I won't be gone forever," I rubbed his cheek and sat him on my lap.

"I guess you must if you are to keep the job," mother concluded.

"Yes, I must."

"Maybe it will be for the best, they say the country has better airs for the health."

"Yes, they do say that."

"Well then tea before you go," mother said instead of telling me she would miss me or a goodbye.

It was then I realized my broken spirit was passed down from my mother, this was what the master saw when I agreed to everything; my mother. She looked more broken than ever since father died and the patched up life was visible to the outsider. It was a state of content living yet never daring to be anything more than barely pleased which made us invisible to the world. How sad it was, how depressing, how pitiful we looked hiding our sadness only to blend in with the background of our gloomy London city.